


One More Chance

by OnlyHim



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: It's Actually Fluff, M/M, even it seems like it is, not really angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 05:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11821872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyHim/pseuds/OnlyHim
Summary: Inspired by "One More Chance" by MadonnaI turned around too late to see the fallen starI fell asleep and never saw the sun go downI took your love for grantedThought luck was always on my sideI turned around too late and you were goneSo give me one more chanceDarlin' if you care for meLet me win your love'Cause you were always there for meIf you care for meBe there for me





	One More Chance

So that was it. Danny should have known this day would come eventually. Frankly, now that he stopped to think about it, he didn't really know why it had taken so long. Wo Fat had been killed two years ago. Catherine had left a year ago. Well, he thought he knew. He always thought Steve had stayed for him – no, no, for them, he meant for them. For the team. He thought Steve had built a life here, a family, and that would make him want to settle down. But Danny should have known that Steve's sense of duty would always be stronger and he'd leave his family if he was ever called back in. It wouldn't be a bad thing in Steve's eyes. It was how things worked. The family stayed behind while the soldier went to serve the country. That was his life. Why should it be any different now?

Except Danny thought it would be different now. He thought he'd – no, the team, the team would be enough – to make Steve start thinking differently. They were doing good work here. Steve was still serving, just in a different way.

But apparently Steve didn't see things this way. He'd been called in, and he just went ahead with it, without a second thought. Without even telling Danny. He wouldn't even know if he hadn't overheard Chin talking to Lou. And why did they know? Why had Steve told them and not Danny? Did Danny really matter so little to Steve that he didn't even consider it important to, if not include him in the decision process, at least be part of the people who knew about it before it became public?

And you know what? Fuck that. Danny was done lying to himself. Look at where it had brought him. He wasn't upset that Steve was leaving the team. Danny could understand that; lots of people could do Steve's job here, but very few people were trained SEALs. So okay, it was different. But Danny had always thought that he was different, too. Stupidly thought, that was very clear now, but a part of Danny had always thought that they would always be together no matter what. He'd always thought that nothing would ever bring them apart. Nothing had so far, and they had gone through some pretty tough shit, so Danny always assumed that it would always be like this.

As friends, obviously. There had never been anything else there. That was why Danny had always supported Steve's relationships, why he'd been so happy when Steve said he was going to propose to Catherine. It wouldn't change their friendship, so why should it matter to Danny who Steve was with? Except that was a huge fucking lie, too. Seeing Steve with Cath had always _killed_ Danny; he was always so ridiculously jealous. But Danny had always passed it as a normal reaction to having to share your best friend with someone else. It was childish, of course it was, but it was common enough that Danny never thought much of it. He'd just admonish himself for being so selfish, reminded himself that he wanted Steve to be happy and then moved on.

But now... Now he was seeing everything under a new light and he was beginning to seriously question if that really was all that was to it. He was pretty certain it wasn't and he hated it. Well, not really, because now that he thought about it, he realized that they would be so, so good together. It made so much sense that Danny had to wonder how he'd never seen it before. But he also did hate it because _Steve. Was. Leaving._ He was fucking leaving, and Danny had waited too long and now that was that. There was nothing Danny could do but wallow and curse his bad luck and bad timing.

Oh, but there was. There _was_ something he could do. He'd fight for Steve. He was going to go there, and talk to Steve and make him see sense. Make him see that they should be together, and he had served enough already and let someone else do it now. Someone who wouldn't be leaving anyone behind, leaving a devastated, heart-broken, close-to-losing-all-will-to-live-if-it-weren't-for-his-kids Danny behind.

 

***

 

Danny got to Steve's and let himself in. As soon as he walked in he saw Steve's duffel bag sitting by the door. Danny felt his heart vanish from his chest at the sight. He saw movement to his right and looked up to see Steve coming out of the kitchen.

“Steve, we need to talk.”

“Well, hello to you, too.”

“I'm serious, Steven. This is important.”

“What is it?” Steve quickly sobered and focused all his attention on Danny.

“Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?”

Steve shrugged. He fucking shrugged. “I was gonna tell you tomorrow when I saw you at the office. What's the big deal?”

“The big deal? What's the-” Danny cut himself off and took a deep breath. Losing his temper would not help him here. “Okay. Why did you tell Chin and Lou before you told me?”

“I didn't. They overheard me when I was on the phone with my former CO. Why are you being such a drama queen about all this? It's really no big-”

“Steven, if you say this isn't a big deal again I'm going to shoot you. What the hell is the matter with you? How can you treat something so important as if it's nothing?”

“Because it is nothing.”

“What? Seriously? After all this time, you're seriously going to tell me that everything we've been through is nothing?”

“Huh? Danny, what the hell are you talking about?”

“What I'm talking ab-” Danny couldn't even finish the sentence in light of all the frustration that was overwhelming him at the moment. How could Steve be so nonchalant about all this? “I gotta tell you, Steve, I know you're not a huge fan of facing your feelings but this is too much even for you.”

“Danny, you're not making any sense.”

“Seriously, Steven? Seriously? I have to spell it out for you?”

“Clearly.”

“Okay. Okay, here goes.” This was it. This was it, and Danny had to tell Steve everything he'd just realized and Steve was being incredibly difficult even by his standards. Danny thought it best to just take a big breath and let it all out as fast as he could.

“Okay, Steven, here's the thing. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry it took me so long to figure all this out. I just got so used to having you with me all the time, beside me every time I needed you, supporting me, that it never occurred to me that this could end one day. I guess I was wrong, I guess I shouldn't have expected you to keep your life on hold for me. I know how much the Navy matters to you and I should've known that you'd go back if you could.”

“Danny, I'm not-”

“Please don't interrupt me, Steve, this is hard enough as it is.”

“Okay.”

Steve let out a put upon sigh and motioned for Danny to keep talking. Honestly, Danny expected better. Couldn't the man have a little bit of patience while Danny was busy freaking out and trying to declare his undying love for him?

“Okay, okay, where was I? Right, you, leaving. So, what I'm trying to say is, I want you to stay. No, I _need_ you to stay. I need you, okay? I should have noticed this before, I should have let you know how important you are. That's just the way I am, you know? I know it sucks, but that's how I show affection, I yell, and complain. I thought you knew that. But maybe I should have been clearer from time to time, maybe I should've explicitly let you know how much you matter to me, how much I can't be without you.”

“Oh, wow.”

Steve looked stunned, and Danny felt terrified and he wanted to run away, but he also wanted to grab Steve and never let him go, and he just carried on because he had to.

“I'm sorry to dump this all on you, I know this is all wrong. But the fact of the matter is, everything about this is wrong. Everything. You leaving, that's just wrong. You have to be here. You have to be with me. We should be together. We should've been together for a long time now. And it took me so long to see this, and maybe you're not there yet, but I'll show you. I'll show you how we belong together. I'll prove to you that no one could be better for you, that no one could love you as much as I do. But you need to be here for me to do that. So please, Steve, please stay. Don't leave me. Just give me a chance to prove to you that you belong here.”

“Uh, Danny, not that I don't appreciate all this, because I do, I truly, deeply do. You have no idea how much. But don't you think this is a little bit of an exaggeration? I'm only gonna be gone a week.”

“You... What?”

“It's just a training exercise. It doesn't even mean anything, it's more of a formality. It's not like they're planning on bringing me back. They consider that what I'm doing here is important, so short of a war breaking out, I'm staying put.”

“But... I heard Chin and Lou...”

“Well, then you must have heard them wrong, because there's really all there is to it.”

“Shit.” Danny was mortified and he could feel all the blood rushing to his head and he thought he was going to pass out. “Fuck, fuck.”

“Danny, calm down. Just breathe for me, okay?” Steve moved towards Danny reaching a hand out to him, but Danny pulled away.

“Oh, fuck, fuck, I shouldn't have... Now I said all this and you... Oh, fuck. I'm just gonna go find a really big rock on this rock of an island and hide under it. Yeah, that's it, I'm gonna go scuba-diving and stay underneath the island forever.”

“You really are a huge drama queen, you know that?”

“Oh, thank you, Steven, that's really nice of you. I'm standing here, humiliated after telling you a bunch of stuff that I really should not have said and you-”

“Like I said, drama queen. Come here.”

Steve reached out and this time he did manage to grab Danny's hand even as he tried to pull away. The smug son of a bitch was grinning as if he'd just scored the winning touchdown of the Superbowl and Danny was the head-cheerleader that was just dying to let him have his way with him. Danny wanted to punch the living daylights out of him. After he came back from under the rock in a million years, that is.

“Could you just let me suffer in peace, please?”

“Oh, dear god, Danny, just come here.” Steve pulled Danny in, hard enough that Danny had no option but to come closer. Although, admittedly, Danny wasn't really trying all that hard to stay away. Steve wrapped his arms around Danny and pulled him closer, keeping just a small distance so they could look at each other. “Now, I have to admit that the whole desperate speech wasn't necessary, but I have to say I'm glad you did this.”

“You are?”

“Yes, Danny, I am. Because yes, I am 'there'. I've been 'there' for a while now, I've just been waiting for you to catch up. I never wanted to scare you off, so I always figured it would be best if you realized all this on your own.”

“Oh. I never knew that. How is it that I never knew that?”

“That's an excellent question, because I've been trying to speed the process for a long time. I think you'd have to be blind not to notice the way I look at you sometimes. Which makes me seriously question if you're in the right profession.”

“That's real funny, babe. Kick me while I'm down, why don't you?”

“Why are you down?” Steve was frowning and he looked worried. “Isn't this what you wanted?”

“Yes, but I'm still feeling pretty stupid about the whole thing. I could have been a lot less...”

“A lot less what, Danny?” And the smug grin was back. Asshole.

“A lot less dramatic, okay? Happy now?”

“Oh, very. You have no idea how much. And I have to say, I'm very happy that you're such a hothead that sometimes forgets to get all the facts before jumping to all sorts of wrong conclusions, otherwise we wouldn't be here right now.”

“And where exactly are we right now?” Danny wasn't flirting, he did have to ask. Things had turned around so fast that he thought he'd gotten emotional whiplash and he had to be certain if they were on the same page.

“Well, I seem to remember someone saying something about proving to me how much they loved me... I think I'll be wanting that proof now, before I can answer that.”

“What about my proof?”

“Danny, everyone on the island knows how much I love you. Probably most people on the mainland, too. You can just ask around.”

Danny looked up, right into Steve's eyes; he didn't think anyone had ever looked at him with so much love. Had Steve always looked at him like that? He really was blind. Well, it didn't matter. They were where they should be now. Where they should have been all along.

“No, I'm good.”

Danny could hear how goofy and stupid in love he sounded but he didn't care. He climbed on his tip-toes and pulled Steve down for the kiss he'd never known he'd always wanted.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](http://whenamarshmallowmeetsahothead.tumblr.com/) is exclusively McDanno.


End file.
